In response to the Activision Blizzard employee walkout yesterday, a large number of Ubisoft employees issued a letter of solidarity to their fellow workers in an open letter addressed to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. "We no longer trust your commitment to address these issues at their core," the employees wrote. "You need to do more."
Today, Guillemot issued a response (courtesy of Stephen Totilo from the Axios Gaming Newsletter) to his employees acknowledging their anger, stating, "We have heard clearly from this letter that not everyone is confident in the processes that have been put in place to manage misconduct reports."
The response continues, "I have always valued free expression at Ubisoft, and I strongly believe this is key for us. This is why last year we launched more than 300 listening sessions with 1500+ team members as well as the company-wide survey and global audit. The feedback from these initiatives has been invaluable in thoughts and feedback on these topics."
Reiterating some of the changes that Ubisoft has made since last summer, Guillemot lists numerous ways in which Ubisoft has grown and assures that the company will continue to update both employees and the public with more changes in Q3 2021. "I encourage you to keep sharing your feedback and experiences," Guillemot states. "Myself and the entire leadership team is committed to building a better Ubisoft for all of us."
While there hasn't been a large response from employees yet, initial reactions to Guillemot's letter include employees stating, "Change takes time, but getting rid of toxic people shouldn't take a year or more." Others then expressed, "This is exhausting."
Ubisoft came under fire last year for allegedly harbouring a toxic work environment within the company. After numerous reports emerged regarding employees feeling unsafe and after many top executives left, Guillemot responded by saying change was going to be coming in the following months. Recent reports indicate the opposite, with French tech union Le Solidaries Informatique filing a lawsuit against the company just this past month.